The black gold has once again crept up as the world's greatest crisis of 2008. The rising crude oil prices silently contributing to the higher inflation in most of the developed and the developing world. Its no secret that we are in a situation where the US has shun signs of growth and it is coming mainly from the EMs coupled with rising demand.
Whats the cause? And whats the reason? The economist article gives an interesting view of the politicking around the world, and how politicians are trying to find scapegoats. Menial interests apart, I feel that there is something much more fundamental to the petroleum consumption.
With development comes dependency. The world today is so dependent on petroleum product as its primary source of power that absence of it can actually cause a worldwide standstill. And it is this dependency that the OPEC is taking advantage of. And even if they didnt, it would get increasing difficult to supply oil to the ever increasing world populace. After all, its a natural resource, and is not infinite (though it might seem so).
As rightly mentioned in the article, it is imperative that new oil basins need to be looked for. But they will dry up too. But they will dry up too. It takes so many years for nature to create petroleum..and we humans deplete the resources much faster.
What is needed is are practical alternate energy sources, perhaps coupled with scientific discovery of artificial fuel. It may not be long when we have to get back to bicycles, horses, camels, elephants et al.
